In the wake of a shooting, the gun debate is silenced: opinion

In the wake of another deadly mass shooting in America, which saw children as young as nine shot dead, the gun control debate is going nowhere.

Already in the first quarter of 2023, 130 mass shootings exceeded the 113 similar shootings in the first quarter of 2022. There have been more mass shootings than days so far; nearly two mass shootings a day this year.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, firearms are now the leading cause of deaths of young children and mass shootings. Academic institutions, places of worship and grocery stores have become battlegrounds in America. US President Joe Biden’s continued pleas for Congress to act are nostalgic words blowing in the wind. No significant action is on the horizon.

The cycle of violence is on an endless loop, replayed in unsuspecting communities every few days. Yet the only thing that changes is the increasing intensity and randomness of the brutality inflicted on the innocent.

“TEARING THE SOUL OF THIS NATION”

According to Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings are defined as incidents in which four or more victims are shot and killed. Hot on the heels of Monday’s shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, which left seven people dead, including the shooter, President Biden renewed his call for Congress to pass his assault weapons ban. “We must do more to stop gun violence; it’s tearing our communities apart – tearing at the soul of this nation. Biden said. The president wants the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban he helped pass in 1994, which expired in 2004.

However, immediately after this horrific shooting, some lawmakers focused on the sex of the attacker, who was transgender, rather than engaging in concerted efforts to address the rising death toll. Sadly, President Biden, gun activists and others are being rendered powerless as blood spills in the streets and weapons of war are used to slaughter innocent men, women and children.

The GOP-controlled House of Representatives believes that more guns, not fewer, is the answer to solving the crisis. The United States already has more guns than people in a country of nearly 330 million people. A survey conducted by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in 2018 estimated that there were 393 million firearms in the United States.

Guns have overtaken people and shootings continue unabated; rendering the “more guns” argument baseless. However, amid these grim statistics, advocates are still pushing to loosen restrictions on gun ownership and open carry laws.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, supports unlicensed and open-carry gun laws. The Florida Legislature is currently working to pass legislation to make Florida an open port state. Tennessee, which saw the last mass shooting, became a license-free carry state in 2021. Even more troublesome, more than 30 states allow the open carry of a handgun without a license or permit.

Less than a year ago, President Biden signed into law the first major gun safety law passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. The new law includes incentives for states to pass “red flag” laws that allow groups to petition courts to remove guns from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.

The law also expands background checks for people between the ages of 18 and 21 looking to buy a gun. In addition, the act expands existing laws preventing those convicted of domestic violence from owning a firearm. The successful passage of major gun legislation has been one of the highlights of the Biden administration’s many accomplishments. However, the legislation has done very little to curb the armed violence that constantly plagues the country.

A University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 54% of Black Americans and 27% of Hispanic Americans said they or a close friend or a member of their family had been victims of armed violence. Overall, 21% of American adults said they had been threatened by a gun or been the victim of a shooting.

IS THE TOUGH-ON-CRIME PLATFORM KEY TO THE WHITE HOUSE?

The race for the White House has begun in earnest. Candidates are already scouring the country for support in key battleground states. In the past, a tough crime mantra was always considered a certain path to success.

Over time, however, National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsement has become a sought-after badge of honor for GOP politicians. While the NRA abandoned a bipartisan approach to lobbying, it managed to co-opt the right, and the Republican Party has since done the bidding for the powerful gun lobby.

In fact, according to Open Secrets, the NRA’s pro-Trump spending in 2016 topped US$100 million, surpassing all previous spending totals on record. The gun lobby’s overall spending skyrocketed to more than $419 million from $312 million the previous year.

Massive spending by the mighty NRA proved not only effective in shutting down the gun control debate, but the influence of the gun lobby essentially silenced one of the then two major political parties. that the bloodshed increases.

Republican lawmakers continue to garner massive campaign donations from the NRA. GOP senators from North Carolina and Florida received a combined $13 million from the gun lobby even as gun deaths in their states topped 1,400 and 2,400, respectively.

It has been said that Sandy Hook marked the end of the American gun control debate. “Once America decided that killing children was bearable, it was over.This school shooting left 20 children dead. It is one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.

In a video posted to social media after the Covenant school shooting on Monday, Brett Cross, the father of one of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting which saw 19 children killed, asked: ” Have you had enough already? Apparently not…